Race Rights and the Law Blog

Dear Race and the Law Profs Blog Readers, We are pleased to announce an online symposium on Professor Randall Kennedy's provocative and thoughtful essay in Harper's Magazine entitled "Lifting as We Climb: A Progressive Defense of Respectability Politics."  For the next 10 days, we will post responses to Professor Kennedy's essay submitted by law professors from around the country, including the…

Recently, Professor Sahar Aziz posted on this blog about how the concept of diversity as applied by institutions fails to account for inter-group difference. I want to continue this dialogue about the failings of the diversity idea by discussing how diversity celebrations, which we often see on college campuses, workplaces, and in broader society, may actually co-opt the conception of equality…

Like most Race Crits, I have long been focused on the severe racial inequities in the criminal justice system. We often think of the many systems of cultural perception and values that reinforce the status quo in this area as an example of the permanence of racism. Attention to this issue has greatly increased in recent years, especially since the publication of Michelle Alexander's call to…

            The prisoner is perhaps the most maligned figure in American society.  The expansion of the prison industrial complex, and its acute emphasis on punishment instead of rehabilitation, deepens the discursive view that prisoners are inherently dangerous and irredeemable members of society.              Dubbed the “New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, proliferating incarceration rates of…

I commented previously on how the right to vote remains in what President Obama called "the long shadow of racism." Mr. Obama juxtaposed the modern challenges of voting with concerns about the larger problems of structural racism that plague poor African Americans. It is a concern about the precarity of those who may suffer harm to their rights because of structural shifts. To be concerned about…

The University of Detroit Mercy Law Review is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an academic Symposium to be held on March 4, 2016. This Symposium will showcase the past, present, and future of the City of Detroit, and will gather scholars, policy makers, and community members to discuss the past, present, and future of Detroit. Articles submitted may focus either on a specific era – past,…

This post was originally published in the BBC, available here - http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34385051    Earlier this month, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told US media he would "not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," in response to a question about whether "Islam is consistent with the Constitution". Carson's statement galvanised defenders on the extreme…

Authored by guest blogger Professor Jasmine Abdel-Khalik When he announced his candidacy, Mr. Carson stated his belief that there are only a few criteria for the Presidential pedigree:  (1) someone who believes in the Constitution; (2) someone who believes in their fellow man, loves America, and is compassionate; and (3) somebody who believes in, essentially, the Pledge of Allegiance.  So perhaps…

As podcasts become an increasing source of information, I will be regularly posting podcasts I come across that discuss legal or policy issues pertaining to race, ethnicity, or color.  I welcome our readers sending me additional podcasts that would benefit the Race and the Law blog community at saziz@law.tamu.edu. Here is the first batch. How Accurate is TV’s Portrayal of Terrorism? May 6, 2015,…

In the wake of Constitution Day 2015, two writers debated the role of slavery in the original Constitution. In a New York Times op-ed, Sean Wilentz argues that "the myth that the United States was founded on racial slavery persists, notably among scholars and activists on the left who are rightly angry at America's racist past." Wilentz argues that the fact that the Framers refused to create a…